News

A: Outside Magazine crowned triathlete Mark Allen (triathlon components: swimming, cycling, and running - a multisport race with three continuous and sequential endurance races) “the fittest man on Earth.” Let’s just assume for a moment that this famous six-time winner of the Ironman Triathlon is the fittest of the fit; then what title do we bestow on the decathlete Simon Poelman (decathlon: a 10-event athletic contest that consists of the 100-meter, 400-meter, and 1500-meter runs, the 110-meter high hurdles, the javelin and discus throws, shot put, pole vault, high jump, and long jump) who also possesses incredible endurance and stamina, yet crushes Mr. Allen in any comparison that includes strength, power, speed, and coordination? Perhaps the definition of fitness does not include strength, speed, power, and coordination - though that seems rather odd. Merriam Webster’s Dictionary defines “fitness” and being “fit” as the ability to transmit genes and being healthy. No help there. Searching the Internet for a workable, reasonable definition of fitness yields disappointingly little. Worse yet, the NSCA, one of the most respected publishers in exercise physiology, in their highly authoritative Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning, does not even attempt a definition.

November third is past,

The voting is done;

Remaining, the tally,

To see who has won.

A real nail-biter,

It’s going to be close;

When the smoke clears, we’ll see

Which man Hashem chose.

Recap: The girls have to register for school. Later, Senator Truman and his daughter Margie and her friend Gloria Jacobson all come to Mr. Cantor’s furniture store. Bayla and Mimi meet the girls who are about their age.

The Coalition for Jewish Values (CJV), representing over 1500 traditional rabbis in matters of public policy, last week announced the launch of the Ultra Initiative, an outreach effort to urge both Jewish and secular media outlets and others to eliminate usage of the deprecatory term “Ultra-Orthodox” to identify the Haredi (traditional Orthodox) community. The rabbis pointed out that in today’s society, calling groups by demeaning names is universally regarded as hostile and bigoted.

 In 1942, two years after the German invasion of the Netherlands, Johan Van Hulst - the son of a furniture upholsterer - was the principal of a Christian training college in Amsterdam. The school was in the predominantly Jewish neighborhood of Plantage just east of the city center. Across the road from Van Hulst’s school was the Hollandsche Schouwburg, a former theater seized by the Nazis in 1941 to be used as a deportation center for the Jews of Amsterdam. In total, 107,000 Jews in the Netherlands were sent to death camps; only 5,200 survived. Historians believe about 46,000 people were deported from the old theater over an 18-month period, up until the end of 1943. Most of the Jews who were deported ended up at concentration camps in Westerbork in the Netherlands, or Auschwitz and Sobibor in occupied Poland. Sadly, most did not survive.

Q Hi, Rabbi Fitness - with this crazy year of the pandemic and people getting sick, I keep hearing that some people are at more of a risk than others. I, like everyone else, want to emerge from this craziness in full health. I know everything is up to Hashem, but I want to know what hishtadlus I need to do in order for my risk to go down. Thanks!

– Dov